In Cinemas & on Home Entertainment this week…

31 August 2017

GRIM PICKINGS this week includes key dates to dismember with the theatrical release of a Hollywood comedy-actioner helmed by an Aussie and the home entertainment release of some of this year’s best indie efforts!

In Cinemas

Thursday August 31stTHE HITMAN’S BODYGUARDAfter two straight weeks in the No.1 spot at the US box office, buddy comedy actioner THE HITMAN’S BODYGUARD opens locally in cinemas and despite the average reviews, we can wholeheartedly say we dug it! The world’s top protection agent (Ryan Reynolds) is called upon to guard the life of his mortal enemy, one of the world’s most notorious hitmen (Samuel L. Jackson). The relentless bodyguard and manipulative assassin have been on the opposite end of the bullet for years and are thrown together for a wildly outrageous 24 hours. During their raucous and hilarious adventure from England to the Hague, they encounter high-speed car chases, outlandish boat escapades and a merciless Eastern European dictator [Gary Oldman] who is out for blood. Salma Hayek joins the mayhem as Jackson’s equally notorious wife.

SMALL TOWN KILLERS (Limited Release)Currently on tour as part of the Scandinavian Film Festival, the Danish black comedy SMALL TOWN KILLERS plays Sydney’s Palace Norton St this week. Ib (Nicolas Bro) and Edward (Ulrich Thomsen), are both tradesmen in a small rural town, who thanks to their moonlighting have developed a substantial nest egg for the future. They both agree that their main obstacles to happiness are their loveless marriages to their wives, Gritt (Mia Lyhne) and Ingrid (Lene Maria Christensen). After getting in a huge fight with their wives at a couple’s dinner, the men get drunk and hatch what they think is a fiendishly clever solution: hire a Russian contract killer to take out their spouses so they can do with their stash what they want. But they have badly underestimated their wives, and this becomes the start of a hilarious journey where Ib and Edward, to their own horror, end at the top of a hit list.

Home Entertainment

Thursday August 31stCOLOSSALFrom visionary filmmaker, Nacho Vigalondo (TIMECRIMES, OPEN WINDOWS) comes COLOSSAL, one of cultist Jarret’s favourite films of 2017 thus far, a genre-hybrid that oozes as much emotion as it does style. The Aussie release Blu-ray & DVD retain the original theatrical key art on the cover and feature a twenty minute behind-the-scenes featurette to boot! Gloria (Anne Hathaway), an out-of-work party girl who after getting kicked out of her apartment by her boyfriend, is forced to leave her life in New York and move back to her hometown. When news reports surface that a giant creature is destroying Seoul, South Korea, Gloria gradually comes to the realisation that she is somehow connected to this far-off phenomenon. As events begin to spin out of control, Gloria must determine why her seemingly insignificant existence has such a colossal effect on the fate of the world. Don’t forget to enter for your chance to WIN 1 of 5 COLOSSAL Blu-ray right here!FREE FIREAfter wowing audiences at last year’s MONSTER FEST, the latest comedy-thriller from acclaimed filmmaker Ben Wheatley (KILL LIST, HIGH RISE) lands on home entertainment and it’ll be a Day 1 buy for all us cultists down at Monster HQ. Everyone’s got a gun, and absolutely no one is in control. Set in a colourful yet gritty 1970s Boston, FREE FIRE opens with Justine (Oscar winner Brie Larson), a mysterious American businesswoman, and her wise-cracking associate Ord (Armie Hammer) arranging a black-market weapons deal in a deserted warehouse between IRA arms buyer Chris (Cillian Murphy) and shifty South African gun runner Vernon (Sharlto Copley). What starts as a polite if uneasy exchange soon goes south when tensions escalate and shots are fired, quickly leading to a full-on Battle Royale where it’s every man (and woman) for themselves.THE VOIDAstron 6’s Jeremy Gillespie & Steven Kostanski ode to Lovecraft and ’80s practical effects-driven sci-fi/horror arrives on home entertainment fully loaded with special features! When police officer Carter (Aaron Poole) discovers a blood-soaked man limping down a deserted road, he rushes him to a local hospital with a barebones, night shift staff. As cloaked, cult-like figures surround the building, the patients and staff inside start to turn ravenously insane. Trying to protect the survivors, Carter leads them into the depths of the hospital where they discover a gateway to immense evil.AWAKENING THE ZODIACDTV fodder that looks to be a late Saturday night Netflix curiosity but if it ends up in $6.98 bin at JB Hi-Fi…we’ll likely bite. In 1968, one of the deadliest serial killers in U.S. history disappeared without a trace. His identity and cryptic messages remained unsolved for decades…until now. After a fortune-seeking couple uncovers a forty-year-old film reel depicting two gruesome murders taken by the killer himself, they set out to solve the mystery and claim the $100,000 reward. But the situation quickly changes, as the hunters become the hunted in this thrilling film starring Shane West, Leslie Bibb and Matt Craven.